A new Ally
by Night of StarClan
Summary: A new boy arrived at Teitan Elementary, but something is off about him. Not only that, not a day before Mori had been asked by Megure to search for a missing officer of his. Is there a Connection? Has that boy a dark past no one knows about? What is the BO planning? And how is Kaito KID involved in all this?
1. Prologue

It was a nice day in Tokyo. The sun shone, a few fluffy white clouds were in the sky and for once there was no immediate murder case. A wonderfully normal and perfect day.

Unfortunately normal was not something Kudo Shinichi, aka Edogawa Conan, could claim to be. Really, by now he wondered why he wasn't already expecting These kind of things to happen. Why was he still surprised?

And yet, while he stood in front of the tanned boy on the other side of the class-room, he couldn't help it when his eyes widened at the boys rather calm nod. And the day had started so normal.

_Again, _thought the shrunken teen wryly,_ when can I claim to be normal?_


	2. Chapter 1

**I'm only going to delete the first story once I'm done getting to the point it's on right now in this one. I hope for you and for me, that I'll be better at writing this one now, but please excuse delays since I'm facing two problems with this story:**

**1\. I suck at Japanese honourifics, so please also excuse any mistakes I may make there**

**2\. I suck even more at creating cases. Be Patient with me.**

**Other than that, there really isn't much more to say beside...**

**Detective Conan/Case Close doesn't belong to me.**

**Please not only Read, but also Review!**

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"Listen up children. We're going to have a new student today!", exclaimed Kobayashi-sensei happily.

"Again?", heard Conan from Genta and bit back a snicker. The rather round boy had a point though. In the course of not even one year their class had gotten Conan himsel, Haibara, Maria and Takuma. Takuma didn't really count as a new addition considering he'd been in the class but absent, but Conan pushed that fact away for now.

Returning his attention to his teacher, he watched how she opened the door and led a young boy inside. Conan scanned him immediately. The boy had unruly dark-brown hair and rather distinctive grey-blue eyes. The shrunken teen was sure he'd seen those eyes somewhere before. His clothes were rather simple. It were merely a long sleeved green T-Shirt and jeans. A backpack was slung over his right shoulder. He smiled shyly at the class and waved a little while the students broke out in whispers.

Conan did hear the word _cute_ more than once from different girls in the room, including Ayumi. Boy Genta and Mitsuhiko wouldn't be happy about this. And what in the world happened to the usual 'boys are dumb and 'girls are gross' from his first time around elementary school? Himself and Ran had had the closest relationship closest between a boy and a girl in their old class and they continuously used to get 'eeeww's for simply hugging. Something mostly initiated by Ran and that had embarrassed him deeply.

Once again he forced himself to return his attention to the front, where the boy had just finished writing down his name.

_Kasai Taiki_.

Sounded rather interesting and yet a bit strange. Though Conan couldn't pinpoint why in the world it would. "Hey everyone. My name is Kasai Taiki and it's great to meet you", said Taiki.

Most of the class shouted their greeting back at him, causing him to wince a little. Conan could sympathise. It could get rather loud in here. "Kasai-kun, since we switched seats only a while ago the only free seat is next to Edogawa-kun. Will you sit next to him?"

"Uh…hai", answered Taiki.

Conan narrowed his eyes for a second. Was he nervous to be sitting next to him? But how, they hadn't even met yet. The shrunken teen obediently raised his hand so Taiki could find him and watched carefully how the boy slowly made his way to the seat. Halfway to there the nervousness finally disappeared from his eyes and they hardened a little. Conan blinked at that and put his hand down.

No child could mask their emotions like that. What Taiki had just done was something one needed to learn and train! There was definitely something off about this boy and Conan intended to find out what it was. He put a friendly expression on his face though and smiled encouragingly at the new kid. The boy saw that and relaxed a little, even smiling back.

"Hi. I'm Edogawa Conan. It's nice to meet you", greeted Conan once the other sat.

Taiki smiled back at him nervously and answered: "Nice to meet you too…I can call you Conan-kun, right?"

"Hai", answered Conan with a smile before he turned back to the teacher. _Well_, thought the detective. _He's not faking his nervousness and he definitely is shy. But he's also most certainly hiding something. _He glanced back to Taiki, to find him pulling his things out of his bag. They looked rather normal and yet, something about the way Taiki handled his belongings bugged him.

Finally, after a much too long time, it was break and immediately Taiki was swarmed by his classmates. Conan chuckled before he felt someone pulling him out of his seat. Glancing back, he found Haibara to be the one who did it. Sighing softly Conan followed the scientist and they stopped in a corner.

"Yes?", asked Conan.

"Be careful around him Kudo-kun", warned the girl and glanced back at Taiki. Or more the crowd that completely blocked him from view.

"Why? Is he one of Them?"

"No", answered the girl without hesitation. "At least I don't get that feeling around him. But there is something…"

"Off?", offered Conan. "Yeah, I realized that too. And I can't help but think I know him from somewhere."

"Me too."

For another minute the two merely watched the crowd around Taiki, before Conan took himself a heart and pushed back through it to get to the new boy. Getting to the seats though, he was surprised. He handled the pressure his peers put on him pretty well. Sure, he still seemed rather nervous and refused to answer a few questions, but he seemed to get along. Which was pretty impressive.

Conan knew from his own experiences that such crowds of students, especially young children, could be just as terrifying as facing a murderer. Still, Conan had his own questions so…

"OI!", shouted the detective, effectively silencing everyone. "Give him some space!" The kids looked back at Taiki, who gave Conan a thankful and relieved smile. Realising they had probably pushed a bit too hard most of the students backed off till only three certain kids remained around the new boy.

"Thanks Conan-kun", breathed Taiki out once Conan sat next to him again. "I didn't want to be rude and tell them to go but…thanks."

"You're welcome Taiki-kun", answered Conan.

"Oi, Conan-kun." The boy looked at Genta. "Care to introduce us?"

Swallowing a groan Conan nodded. _Seriously they almost always introduce themselves to everyone without a care and now they need me?_ "Taiki-kun those three are Yoshida Ayumi", the girl waved happily, "Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko", Mitsuhiko grinned and waved as well, "and Kojima Genta", Genta nodded, "and-" And now Conan was cut off and gave a groan.

"And we are…the Detective Boys!"

Sighing Conan placed his head in his hands when Taiki asked: "The…what?"

"The Detective Boys", answered Haibara and joined the group. "A group of, as the name already hints, detectives."

"Yes! We solved a lot of cases already, even some with the police!", boasted Ayumi.

Conan watched Taiki carefully and narrowed his eyes. The kid was a good actor, Conan gave him that. But he was an experienced detective and did recognize false surprise for what it was. "Really?", asked Taiki and Conan did hear that he asked this more to humour the kids rather than actually wanting to have more information. For another few minutes the kids continued to boast about their solved cases, they finally grew bored of that and Taiki turned to Haibara. "I don't think I got your name before, right?"

Haibara glanced at him from where she read, answered: "Haibara Ai", and returned to her book. Taiki blinked and glanced at Conan, who just shook his head with a smile.

"Ne, Taiki-kun!"

Both boys' attention switched to Ayumi who offered: "Do you want to come with us to Hakase today? He said he had a new game for us to try!"

"Hakase?", asked the boy back.

Once again Conan could tell that the confusion in his voice was faked, yet he answered: "Hai. Haibara-san lives with Hakase Agasa. He's a real Professor…though most of his inventions blow up pretty often before they work."

"So, are you coming?", pushed Ayumi.

Taiki hesitated, his eyes flitting through the room, before he muttered: "Uh…well, yeah, why not but-"

"Great", cheered Ayumi and grinned at him. Mitsuhiko and Genta grinned as well and then they ran off.

"Oi! Wait!", called Taiki after them, but they were gone already.

"Sorry about that", chuckled Conan.

"It's okay…I just need to contact the woman I'm staying with right now that she doesn't have to pick me up."

_Staying with right now?,_ wondered Conan, then he said: "You can use my phone to call her if you want to."

"That's great, thanks, but I better wait till she has her break."

"Break?", asked Haibara.

Taiki nodded and moved to answer. At this Conan frowned. As nervous as he'd seemed about sitting next to him, right now Taiki seemed a lot more relaxed than just a few minutes ago when…the kids had still been there. He turned to look at Haibara, who gave a slight nod. She'd seen it too. "Yeah, she works for the police, so she's always pretty busy."

"The police, huh, well say her name and I'm pretty sure Edogawa-kun can tell you all about her", offered Haibara.

"Haibara!", hissed Conan. The girl just smirked at him.

"Yeah well…she works in Division One so-"

"Are you talking about Sato-keiji?", cut Conan in, surprised. He hadn't expected to hear that. Sure, Takagi he could imagine with children, but the female officer? Not really.

"Yeah", answered Taiki and blushed a little, before he blinked and asked: "How did you know that?"

Conan filed the blush and the belated question away for later while he answered: "I met many officers from that Division already, but Sato-keiji is the only woman in it."

Taiki looked at him, then laughed shyly and muttered: "I guess I could've thought of that." He absently rubbed the back of his neck.

Conan's eyes widened at the familiar movement and for a second he saw a flash of a young and a little clumsy police officer in the kid. But no, that couldn't be, could it? That was when Kobayashi-Sensei came back into the room and the lessons continued_. _

_It can't be, can it?_, wondered Conan and glanced at the boy next to him again and again. His eyes were focused on the task at hand and the movement of the pencil in his hand was just as familiar as many other movements the boy made. It looked exactly like a certain someone when he took notes of a case for Megure. A certain someone that had disappeared three days ago!

Conan froze at that. A day ago Mori had gotten a call from the Inspector, telling him that one of his officers had gone missing and asking if he would please take a look around where the officer had been before his disappearance. Mori had done so, along with a few other officers, but all they had found, much to everyone's shock, was a blue notebook. The notebook that this officer had always used, during any case he'd been at.

Could it really be? Once again Conan's eyes moved from his work to the boy next to him, to find the boy almost done with the assignment and tapping his pencil gently on his workbook to pass the time. Not loud enough to annoy anyone, but enough to have something to do. Conan had seen that movement before as well. And till now all the signs pointed to only one conclusion. Even the fact that Taiki blushed at mentioning Sato fit perfectly into the puzzle.

But that would mean…But how could he…Could this really be…?

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"Hai…Hai…of course…Sato-neesan I know that…yeah…sure, bye!"

Taiki finished the call and handed the phone back to Conan, a soft blush warming his cheeks. "I take it that's taken care off?", asked Haibara. Conan kept himself from face-palming. He had shared his theory with Haibara, who had agreed it was very possible. So why, why was she talking like that now?!

Taiki blinked at her choice of words, before he grinned and nodded. "Yeah. She said if it's going to be later than eight o'clock before I leave, I'm to call her so she can pick me up."

School had, surprisingly, ended rather fast today. Or at least it appeared that way to Conan. Then again, he'd been rather preoccupied trying to find more proof that the boy in front of him really was who he thought he was. And by now he was completely certain. He'd already seen so many quirks that matched that certain police-officer, it was impossible to copy so many. Conan didn't think his mother or Vermouth would be able to pull all of those off.

Now the group of six slowly left the school-grounds, Conan still keeping a good eye on Taiki, who walked a bit away from the kids and watched them with a slightly bemused expression. Not that Conan blamed him. Sometimes those three really didn't seem to have any sense of shame. Two blocks away from the school, Conan shot Haibara a glance and she nodded and sped up. Conan on the other hand stopped walking and slapped his forehead.

"Oh man", exclaimed the detective in an annoyed voice. The other five turned to look at him. "I left my homework-sheets in the classroom!" Turning to look at Taiki, he added: "Taiki-kun, will you go and get them with me?"

"Hahhh?", asked Mitsuhiko. "Why only him?"

"Taiki-kun is new here", argued Haibara. "It'll be good for him to see the way again." The kids couldn't argue with that and Taiki nodded as well, obviously not sensing anything wrong. "C'mon guys, Edogawa-kun and Kasai-kun will catch up to us." And with that she ran on, leaving the kids with no choice but to run after her or leave her alone, and they wouldn't do the latter.

Soon enough Conan and Taiki were alone and both turned around and walked back to the school. Internally Conan was slightly nervous. So he had managed to separate Taiki from the others. Now he had to figure out how to approach him. Just saying it directly seemed like the best possibility. On short notice the other would never be able to create a believable mask should he plan to lie to the young detective. Yeah, the direct approach seemed the best.

"Are you sure it's in here?" Conan looked up from his thoughts, to blink in surprise. They were already back in the classroom? Well better now than never. Stepping forward, he closed the door to the room and looked at the tanned boy. Taiki tilted his head at him, but seemed calm enough considering that other seven year olds would probably become slightly hysterical with the way Conan acted.

"Oh it's in this room", answered the detective finally. "It's in my bag actually."

He kept a good eye on the other's features, but Taiki remained calm and attentive, though he tensed a little. Preparation for whatever Conan would do next. "Why did you bring me here then?", asked Taiki now. Conan looked to the ground, light reflecting of his glasses and turning them wide. His now hidden eyes seeing Taiki tensing up a bit more at the, to him, surely familiar position Conan had just taken.

"We're here, because I needed to talk to you. I think it's time I make up on the promise I gave you." Taiki blinked confused, but said nothing. "You once asked me who I am. I think I can answer now, considering we're both supposed to be in the afterlife at this point, ne, Takagi-keiji?"

He watched amused how the other boy's jaw dropped for a minute and nothing but stutters left his mouth, before he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and once he reopened them he looked, more or less calm again. Then he nodded and asked: "Who are you then?"

Conan grinned at that and saluted playfully and introduced: "Shrunken High School Detective Kudo Shinichi, at your service."

Now Taiki didn't look very surprised, and true enough, the other stated: "My own position considered, I guess you actually being Kudo makes sense." Then he suddenly laughed. "It actually explains a lot."

Conan grinned at that, then reopened the door to the classroom. "Shall we? Explaining will be a lot easier at the Professor's." The shrunken officer grinned back and nodded, following Conan out of the room.


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, long time no see, I know, but School plus the Problems I already mentioned (I**** suck at Japanese honourifics, ignore mistakes and I**** suck even more at creating cases, please be Patient) makes it difficult to update frequently. Of all my stories, this one is the most challengin.**

**Only thing left to say now is...**

**Detective Conan/Case Close doesn't belong to me.**

**Please don't only Read, but also Review!**

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"By Conan-kun, Taiki-kun and Ai-chan!"

"See you tomorrow Ayumi", shouted Conan back.

He closed the door behind the last of the kids and leaned against it with an exhausted sigh. Half past seven. It was half past freaking seven already and the kids had only left because Haibara had reminded them that, against to her, Taiki and Conan, they hadn't done their homework yet, being too preoccupied with playing video-games. Conan had gotten better at those, but that still didn't mean he was a fan of them.

A hand gripped his shoulder suddenly and with a yelp the shrunken teen jerked from his slumped position, to find a chortling Taiki next to him.

"Oh ha ha, really mature", grumbled the detective.

Taiki grinned and answered: "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, only to get your attention. Haibara wants you back on the couch." Conan gave a soft grunt in answer and made his way back into the living room. "You know", said Taiki suddenly. "It is somewhat fun to act like a child again."

"Not for too long, believe me, it gets old real fast. Why do you think I slip up so often around crime-scenes?", answered Conan while they walked to the couches.

Haibara sat there already, a laptop in front of her. Hakase was bustling around in the kitchen. Conan stopped walking and held out his arm, a grin forming on his face. He got a confused glance from Taiki, but motioned the other to wait. And true to form not ten seconds later Haibara suddenly looked up from her work and turned her head to the kitchen. "That better not be something fattening Hakase", called the girl calmly. A yelp followed by the sound of a shattering bowl sounded from the kitchen, prompting a snicker from Conan.

Not too much later Hakase appeared from the kitchen, a plate with slices of watermelon in his hands. Waving Taiki forward, the two shrunken males sat down across from Haibara and the professor. For a short while no one spoke and Conan saw Taiki start to fidget a little at his side. Not that it surprised the shrunken teen. Haibara had directed her gaze to him a minute or so ago and he knew how unnerving that could be.

Finally though the girl tilted her head and asked: "I take it Kudo-kun was correct in who you really are?"

It sounded more like a statement and Conan was glad he'd given Taiki a rundown of all of Haibara's quirks. The boy next to him nodded and answered: "Hai, though he didn't mention how you are involved with all of this."

_That…was surprisingly calm considering this is Haibara he's talking to_, thought Conan surprised, then thought back to what he'd spied the officers of Division One do to Takagi-keiji because of the attention he received from Sato-keiji. _Yeah, he's got to be used to scrutiny and unnerving behaviour._

"First I'd like to know how a simple Homicide officer came to get involved with a group as dangerous as Them", shot Haibara back, her glare boring into the boy in front of her. Taiki flinched back a little from the force behind it.

Conan shook his head, but followed Haibara's lead and dropped the last parts of the kid-act, as they came to call it, that was almost second nature by now. Seeing this Taiki soon followed their lead, his eyes gaining a more hardened look that only came from experience in the field. Conan bit back a smile.

Though many couldn't see it for some reason, Takagi-keiji was one of the best officers the Homicide-Department of Division One had. He was smart, resourceful and had a somewhat sixth sense for justice. It was often overlooked due to the man's somewhat clumsy tendency and gentle and shy nature, but he was easily the best Sergeant in Megure's office.

And it showed now.

Taking in the attention he was getting from the three others in the room, Taiki gave a short nod and began recounting what happened to him. "It all started with a quite simple case. It was wrapped up quickly enough and we all were on our way back to the station when a group of armed men rushed past us, followed by the Arson-Department. There wasn't much time for explanations and one of the department's assistant inspectors just called out to us to help them out, so we joined the chase as well…

_Flashback_

_Takagi was running as fast as possible, hoping to catch up to those criminals. Why the Arson-Department was even chasing after these men was beyond him. He hadn't heard anything about any arsonists in a while and that kind of information passed through the Homicide-Department as easily as gossip did. _

_The men had split up a while ago, prompting the pursuing officers to do the same. Right now the only others with the homicide-officer were three Sergeants from the Arson-Department. Takagi would've felt a lot more comfortable if anyone from his own department had been there. Anyone of the many guys that continuously locked him in the interrogation room. At least he knew those men and knew they were professional enough to keep his back, no matter how much they despised him for having caught Sato's attention._

_ The group of four officers burst out of an alley, to see that the three men they'd been pursuing had split up once more. The three others split up and ran after two of them, leaving Takagi to go after the last on his own. _

Figures_, thought the man dryly while he sprinted after the criminal. The chase through the back-alleys of Tokyo had led them to a rather murky part of the town, making Takagi rather uncomfortable, but he pushed it aside and continued to chase after the guy. He ran into an abandoned park, most likely hoping he'd manage to lose Takagi that way. But not with him._

_ Putting on another burst of speed, Takagi started closing the gap between the two of them. Suddenly the man was gone! _

_Staggering to a stop Takagi gazed around wildly. He couldn't have turned invisible all of a sudden, could he? Slowly Takagi moved through the trees and bushes. The sun was starting to set now and the man clenched his jaw. If he didn't find this guy again soon he wouldn't find him at all, not in the night. And he didn't want another dressing down from Megure, let alone another pay-cut. It was already hard enough to pay his apartment sometimes and it was in a pretty rundown building too._

_ A soft thud suddenly caught his attention and quickly the sergeant slipped through the bushes, to freeze. He had found the man alright, but not in the way he had expected. _

_Blood poured out of the hole in the man's forehead. _What in the world?, _wondered Takagi. He was about to approach the corpse when the small noise that indicated a gun being readied sounded out. He froze, trying to pinpoint where it had come from. _

_"It's a police officer aniki, what now?", sounded a gruff voice out. _

_Takagi didn't dare move a muscle and tensed when he felt the muzzle of a gun against his back. Something black flashed past Takagi's left side and a man appeared in his view. He was tall, pale and completely clothed in black. Long platinum-blonde hair flowed down his back and a shudder ran down the Sergeant's spine when he spotted the cruelty that shone in the man's eyes. _

_"Put the gun down Vodka", instructed the man. The weapon was removed from Takagi's back, but he doubted this Vodka had really put his weapon away. He'd certainly only removed it from Takagi's person. "Hold him." _

_Before Takagi could react, strong hand gripped his upper arms and held tight. His self-defence-training kicked in instinctively and he tried to shake the man off when the blonde suddenly raised a weapon to his face. "No move." Takagi froze immediately, fearing for his life. The man grinned cruelly. "Good, now let's see who we're dealing with, shall we?" _

_He stepped forward and reached into Takagi's suit-jacket. Still having the man's gun pointed at his face the young officer didn't dare to try and stop him. Soon enough the man's hand retreated, Takagi's badge and notebook in it. Takagi watched with baited breath how the man checked the badge. An amused smirk quirked his lips when he read it. _

_"A Sergeant of the local police, eh? Barely worth our effort, but obviously not too shabby if you've been able to keep up with this idiot Kumori. He may've been stupid, but he was fast." He locked eyes with Takagi. "You have potential, such a shame it's going to go to waste." Before Takagi knew what would happen the man's gun hit him hard on the head._

_ Stars exploded in his vision before the dizziness hit. Takagi had barely the focus left to recall that this was the same spot he'd been injured a few times already. The most prominent memory being the injury he'd received from Eiki Nabei. Soon that memory faded too though and Takagi felt himself hit the ground. _

_He dimly heard the man and Vodka talk to each other, but couldn't make out the words used. Then he was grabbed by the hair and his head dragged upwards. Still dazed eyes focused on the maliciously grinning blond and he felt a pill or something of the kind slipped into his mouth. _

They're…trying to poison me? _At that realisation Takagi managed to somewhat snap himself back to attention and started retching when they poured water into him mouth. He heard a growl and his head was yanked back more. Gathering himself Takagi was just about to spit the water and the pill right into the man's face when a hand covered his mouth, followed by a second covering his nose. _

_The young Sergeant struggled to no avail and soon enough he had to swallow the water and the pill._

_ Immediately the hand on his face disappeared, leaving only the one on his head. "Keh, you're more trouble than I thought you'd be. Too bad you're a cop", snarled the man out. His weapon hit Takagi's head once more and the officer was out like a light before he even hit the ground again._

_End of Flashback_

Conan couldn't help but stare at Taiki in surprise. That was…incredibly similar to what had happened to him.

"After I woke up", continued Taiki now. "I at first didn't realise what had happened. Only that it was morning already and that the man's body was still there too. I tried to get up, when everything started to spin. You can guess what happened next. Reacting on reflex I put my hand to my head, to realise that something was covering it. The first time I looked down at myself then…I admit I freaked out terribly." Taiki looked slightly embarrassed at the admission.

"You don't have to be embarrassed about it", argued Conan. "It is one hell of a change to go through after all."

"Shinichi is right", agreed Professor Agasa. "But still, how did you end up with Sato-keiji now?"

Taiki blinked at the question, then his expression shifted to a mix of embarrassment and confusion, a light blush on his cheeks. "To be honest", began the tanned boy then. "I'm still not sure how that happened. I was still freaking out when I realised I shouldn't be found the way I was. I somehow managed to get up without losing anything that might've been left in my stomach and left the park, tripping over my clothes ever so often."

"Hold on a second", cut Conan in suddenly. "Megure-keibu mentioned they found nothing but your notebook. If Gin had that, how did they find it?"

Taiki blinked back at him, then asked: "Gin?"

"The blonde", elaborated the shrunken teen.

The other nodded in understanding and explained: "Well, I guess he put it back, especially since, while I managed to get out of the park okay, my head-wound took its toll. I was much better off than when they'd given it to me", he shrugged, "could have something to do with the shrinking for all I know. Fact is, it was starting to take its toll and soon enough I head to drop my jacket because it was dragging me down." Taiki narrowed his eyes. "In all honesty, I don't know where I was at that point. I just kept moving until I literally couldn't anymore. I collapsed near the exit of an ally. When I woke up again I was in the hospital and Chiba-kun was dozing on a chair next to the bed."

"Chiba?", asked Agasa surprised.

"Eh", agreed Taiki. "Apparently someone saw me and thought I was dead. That's why Division One came to where I was found. There they saw I was still alive and got me to the hospital. Chiba was keeping watch." Taiki smiled wryly. "I almost jumped out of the bed from sheer shock at seeing him, waking him up at the same time. He was relieved to see me awake and introduce himself to me. That was…weird to say the least."

"I know how you feel", muttered Conan. It was the same every time he met someone he knew as Shinichi as Conan. Taiki smiled wryly, then Haibara cleared her throat all of the sudden. It made both boys wince.

While Conan and Agasa had cut in ever so often during Taiki's story, Haibara had remained silent. Once she had everyone's attention she looked at Taiki and asked: "What did your tell them?"

"Nani?", asked Taiki back.

Haibara rolled her eyes and stated: "The police. Who do they think you are?"

Taiki's expression darkened at that and he answered: "Just some kid of the records."

"How did you pull that one off?", asked Conan curiously. Off the records, that was quite the feat.

The shrunken officer looked quite uncomfortable now and Conan was about to pull his question back when he softly answered: "I…Chiba left for a while, then came back with Megure-keibu and Sato-san. He asked me my name, where I came from, how I got injured, where I'd gotten my clothes, the standards. At first I didn't even bother to look at him, not knowing how in the world I was supposed to answer those. I figured that those men in black meant to kill me with that pill, not shrink me and…I thought I'd put Sato-san in danger if she knew the truth."

"Smart move", stated Haibara.

"Anyhow, after I'd played mute for a few minutes, Sato-san suddenly sat down next to me on the bed", here Taiki blushed strongly. Smirking Conan imagined how hard it must've been for the shrunken officer not to react to the love of his life being so close. "She took my hand and started talking to me. Telling me that it would be alright, that I wasn't in trouble…all those things and…and then I finally started answering their questions. I had some idea where I wanted to get since they wouldn't find me in the records. I told them I didn't know my real name, that I'd always been called Kasai Taiki."

"Why that name anyhow?", asked Agasa now.

"I wanted something that sounded similar enough to Takagi so I would react to it", answered Taiki with a shrug, then continued: "When they asked why I said that I…I told them that I'd been taken from my parents years and years ago and some group of men tried to train me to become a criminal. I told them they'd put on a test before that guy who called the police found me and that I'd obviously failed it."

Conan blinked. For only a few minutes to think of a backstory, that one actually made quite some sense. It wasn't unheard of either. Small criminal-groups training kids in their ways. _But still_, thought Conan, _to come up with this so quickly_. He glanced over at Taiki, whose eyes had darkened incredibly ever since the topic of his child-persona's past had come up. And although he was terribly curious, he swallowed his questions.

They had their answers on how Taiki had landed in this situation. He didn't want to push the other boy any further tonight. No matter how strong anyone was or believed to be, having your whole life torn from you like this was an experienced no one came out of unshaken.

"You still haven't finished explaining how you ended up living with Sato-keiji", prompted Conan then, hoping to take Taiki's mind of the subject.

The moment he brought the subject up again, Taiki's cheeks reddened a little again and he shyly admitted: "Once I was done with my story, Sato-san was almost in tears and Chiba-kun asked me if I had any place to go or wanted back to that group. I told them I didn't want back and wouldn't know how to either. They believe that whenever they wanted to test me, they blindfolded me before I was brought out of their hide-out so I would never know where it was. And that they most likely believe that I'm dead anyway since I missed the time to meet them completely. After that Megure mentioned sending me to an orphanage", here everyone in the room grimaced a little at the thought, "Though when she saw that I seemed less than thrilled about it Sato-san suddenly got up and left. An hour later she came back with some clothes and told me to get dressed, she would take me home with her." He shrugged helplessly. "I really don't know what she did."

There was a short silence, then Taiki straightened and stated: "So, now that you know my story, would you please fill me in what I accidently got involved with?"

Conan nodded in agreement and started to talk. He explained everything.

About how he met the Black Organization and everything that happened with them.

Haibara cut in after he was finished with Akemi Miyano's death and explained her own situation.

Soon they followed with different incidents that happened with the Organisation.

Conan delivered detailed account on everything concerning the involvement of the FBI, how one of their agents, Akai Shuichi had died, Haibara's first worries about Okiya Subaru, what happened before and on the Mystery Train, followed by the last fact that Tooru Amuro, Kogoro's apprentice, is in reality Bourbon, a Black Organisation member.

Once Conan was finished Taiki let out a whistle and murmured: "And all of that in less than a year." Then he turned to look Conan directly in the eyes. The silver-blue was showed that he'd made a decision.

"How can I help?"


	4. Chapter 3

**As always the warning beforehand: **

**I**** suck at Japanese honourifics, ignore mistakes.**

**I**** suck even more at creating cases, please be Patient.**

**Of all my stories, this one is the most challengin.**

* * *

**Thank you for your Patience.**

**Detective Conan/Case Close doesn't belong to me.**

**Please don't only Read, but also Review!**

* * *

"Well, you took long enough Mister."

Taiki did his best to fight down the blush that threatened to overtake his whole face at Miwako's teasing tone. Not that she wasn't right. Since the actual kids had left so late it had been almost nine o'clock before Taiki had found the time to call Miwako so she'd come and pick him up. And Conan had only covered the basis of everything that has been happening.

There was still a lot the shrunken officer didn't know.

Taiki turned back to the Professor's house one more time and waved to Conan and Ai who stood in the door. Ran was apparently staying with her friend Sonoko for some school-project and Conan preferred to avoid Mori-san when he had the chance. The two waved back, then he jumped into the car and closed the door.

He clicked the seatbelt into place, then looked up when Miwako started speaking again. "So, Taiki-kun, did you have fun today?"

Doing his best to fall back into his previous act of a child, and damn was it hard since he didn't have to put much effort into it the last few hours, he nodded his head wildly and exclaimed: "Hai Sato-neesan! Conan-kun, Ai-chan and I did our homework at first, then we played videogames and football with Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun. Then they had to leave early because they'd completely forgotten about their homework", here he pushed in a mischievous snicker, "and then Conan-kun, Ai-chan and I solved riddles with Professor Agasa. That was fun!"

The last part he added when he remembered Conan's advice to let Miwako see that he had some _talent_ in solving riddles and mysteries. Hopefully that way she'd question him less at later dates when he slipped up.

Miwako smiled brightly and stated: "I was hoping you'd say that." Taiki blinked and tilted his head.

"Nani?" What was she going on about?

"Well, you seemed so lonely after I'd found you and…well I do know what Conan-kun and his friends get involved with. Don't get me wrong", here she gave him a warning glare, "I don't want you to jump headfirst into danger, but the Detective Boys are a real help to Division One and Two at times and I thought you might enjoy solving cases with them" Now catching on Taiki fought back a laugh. She was hoping to help him cheer up by making sure the _criminal kid_ met the _Detective Boys_. That he could maybe atone himself because she thought he'd be bothered by what he'd been forced to do. "Plus, they are good kids and good friends to have."

Giving a grin Taiki nodded and answered: "They're fun to be with." Miwako laughed a little, then focused back on the street.

Taiki's eyes widened when he realised what was about to happen. He'd luckily ridden with Miwako often enough during cases to understand that expression of hers. He took hold of his seat, too small to reach any other safety-measures, and held on tight.

Just in time.

The car shot forward a little and sped around the next corner. Anxious silver-blue eyes flickered to the window and Taiki gulped. As much as he trusted Miwako's driving skills, it also always managed to scare him. This was even scarier now that he was so small. Then something came to mind. He was a kid right now. That meant…

"Sato-neechan", pressed the boy out. "Can you please drive a bit slower?" Miwako glanced at him, then the car started to slow down. Taiki released the breath he hadn't fully realised he'd been holding and relaxed his grip on the seat, wincing when he stretched his stiff fingers.

"I'm so sorry Taiki-kun", said the woman now. "I'm not used to driving around with anyone but other officer and the Detective Boys. And whenever I have the latter with me driving slowly isn't exactly an option."

Taiki let out a nervous laugh at that one. _Don't I know it._ "So, I better get used to it?", asked he out loud.

Miwako laughed a little at that one, then she answered: "Maybe sometime you will, yes." Then she glanced back at him and asked: "Say, have you eaten yet?"

"Some watermelon", answered Taiki. "Nothing else. Ai-chan wouldn't let the Professor make anything else."

"How about some ramen then?", offered the woman. "There is this nice little place not too far from here. I used to go there all the time with-"

She cut herself off and bit her lip, prompting a wince from Taiki. He knew how she would've finished that sentence. _"I used to go there all the time with my partner Takagi."_ And it was true.

Whenever they had a case in this general area, and even sometimes when they didn't, the pair stopped at that one place for either lunch or dinner every time. Biting back the guilt tearing at him Taiki asked: "Sato-neechan, are…are you okay?" He didn't want to ask. He didn't want to hurt her anymore. But he had to. Any other child would immediately be concerned if their caretaker acted like this.

Miwako glanced at him and he gulped. She had tears in her eyes. _No, please don't cry Miwako_, begged the boy mentally. He hated to see her cry. And now he couldn't even comfort her like he normally would.

"It's…I'm okay Taiki-kun. It's nothing. I'm fine." A tear escaped her_. _

_I hate this!_ "But you're crying." _I'm so sorry._

Miwako lifted a hand to her face and wiped over her cheeks. Her eyes widened when she caught it. She let out a shuddering breath and whispered: "I don't…you don't need to burden yourself with it Taiki-kun."

_But Miwako…"_I want to help you." _Please Miwako_. "Let me help you. After everything you've done for me already." _Both versions of me. Takagi and Taiki. Please Miwako._

Tearful lavender eyes focused back onto the street, but soon enough she pulled over and stopped the car. The lights turned off and with a chocked sob the tears started to flow. Soon enough sobs started to shake the woman's slender frame and she buried her face in her hands.

Scrambling for the lock, Taiki released himself from the seatbelt and scrambled over to Miwako. "Mi-Sato-neechan", whispered the boy, hurriedly correcting himself. He placed a small hand on her shoulder and the next second he found himself in Miwako's lap, her arms around him and her face buried in his shoulder.

Pain tore through the shrunken officer, his mind flying back to Conan's words just before Miwako had arrived at Agasa's place.

_Flashback_

"_You need to be careful around her." _

_Taiki looked up from where he was buttoning up his coat, to find Conan staring at him with dark eyes. "What do you mean?", asked the shrunken officer. _

_Conan smiled wryly and explained: "I mean around Sato-keiji. Haibara can't give you any advice on this since she lives with the Professor, but you and I…we both live with the women that hold our hearts Taiki-kun." Taiki gulped, but Conan went on already. "Be careful what you say and do around her. The more similar to who you really are you start to act, the more hurt she'll be. The longer this takes the more she'll be…fact is we'll always hurt them, no matter if we want to or not. It's dangerous to live so close with the one you care for the most Taiki."_

_ "I still don't fully-fully understand what you're trying to say Conan-kun", whispered Taiki. His heart panged a little and his mind flew back to when he'd heard Miwako cry last night. Was that what he was trying to get at? _

_"You love Sato-keiji, not?", asked the shrunken teen. _

_Taiki nodded. That was no secret. _

_"And she loves you too, right." _

_"I-I guess so."_

_ "Don't be like that", grunted the other. "She was almost frantic during your kidnapping. Believe me, she does love you." His eyes saddened incredibly and now his voice was barely above a whisper. "She loves you and she will miss you. She'll cry for you, she'll pray for your return…Every time she looks at you, you'll see that pain she'll carry around in her heart. Every time she says your real name, she'll wince and every time you'll see her cry it'll rip your heart apart. All you'll want is to tell her the truth, to be able to ease her worries and pain, but you won't be able to."_

_ Taiki gulped, but Conan seemed to be off in his own world at this point, most likely relaying his own experiences with Ran to him. _

_"Every time she wonders when you'll finally come back, you'll do your best to comfort her. You'll tell her that you're going to come back, that you'll be back soon but…deep inside you know that it's just another empty lie. And it'll be terrible. The more often you lie to her, the easier it'll be but the more it tears at you. Should she actually break once, and she will, I can promise you that, she'll only be a shadow of herself for a while. It'll kill you to see her that way, but there's nothing we can do." _

_Dark-blue eyes locked with silver blue, both reaching a silent understanding. Taiki gulped dryly, dread spreading through him. _

_"It'll never get easier but…this is the price we have to pay for still being alive."_

_End of Flashback_

He'd understood what Conan meant. In a theoretical sense. But now, now he really understood what the shrunken teen had meant. All Taiki really wanted to do right now, was tell her the truth. He wanted her to know that he was alright, that he was right here, but he couldn't.

He couldn't put Miwako in that kind of danger.

Steeling himself mentally, Taiki hugged Miwako tightly and whispered: "Sato-Sato-neechan." The title barely made it over his lips.

"His name is Takagi Wataru", chocked the woman suddenly and Taiki tensed.

_Please no. Please don't let her go there now,_ begged the shrunken officer.

"He's my partner in Division One and he disappeared just a day before I met you. No one heard from him. All we found was his jacket and notebook near a park." New sobs shook her. "I-I-I can't lose him Taiki-kun. I lost so much already and now he's gone too."

" You don't know that", exclaimed Taiki quickly.

Screw being careful about this! He knew where Miwako was going with this and he wasn't going to let it happen, not again. He was still here, he wasn't dead yet, though he'd come incredible close to it. She didn't need to give herself grieve about her father and Matsuda-san too. Shocked lavender eyes locked with his own silver-blue and he argued: "You said you only found his jacket and notebook. That means you have no proof that this Takagi-keiji is gone." And damn if it wasn't weird to refer to himself in third person. "Maybe he just can't come back right now? Maybe he has something important to do", he shrugged, "I wouldn't know. But if he means so much to you and you really believe in it, then he'll come back to you."

Miwako stared at him for a little longer, then a small smile spread across her features and she wiped her tears away. She hugged him tightly to herself. Taiki felt his face heat up and he looked away. Once she let go he quickly scrambled back over to his seat and put the seatbelt back on. Luckily the second he wasn't in physical contact with Miwako anymore it was a lot easier to fight down his blush and have it disappear.

Miwako started the car back up again and soon enough they reached the familiar corner-restaurant. Both got out of the car and Miwako offered her hand to him. Taiki took a deep breath, then placed his small hand in hers and the two made their way inside. _This is going to be one long adventure…_

* * *

"I don't believe it", sighed Conan into the phone.

"What is it?", sounded the voice from the other end.

With a shake of his head Conan placed the newspaper on the table in front of him. "It's Jirokichi Suzuki again. Looks like he's found some treasure again and, of course, he immediately challenged Kid to steal it."

A laugh sounded out from the other end, followed by a: "Seriously when is that guy gonna give up on it? It's just gonna get stuck with you again Kudo."

"Don't I know it Hattorie, don't I know it", answered Conan.

"So, what's the old man offering this time?"

"Give me a second." Conan quickly scanned the article, then answered: "Looks like he's found a very rare sapphire in a formerly sunken, old temple somewhere in the middle of Japan's nowhere. How he got it back to the surface I'll probably never know." It was silent on the other end and Conan asked: "Hattorie?"

"Why did you really call me Kudo? Not just because of Kid, right?", asked the High School detective of Osaka back.

Conan ran his hand through his hair. Of course his reason for calling Hattorie had been a different one, but he still wasn't sure how to approach the subject. "Kudo?", prompted Hattorie.

"Sorry Hattorie it's just…something happened. Something with Them." It was silent again, but this time it was a pensive silence. Finally Hattorie spoke up again.

"What happened? Did someone die?"

"No", answered Conan with a sigh. "Almost, but no."

"Almost?", pushed Hattorie, confusion obvious in his voice. Conan opened his mouth to explain, when Hattorie gasped and asked: "You mean they got someone else? I mean, they shrunk someone else?"

"They did", answered Conan softly.

"And you know them", stated Hattorie. "I mean you knew them well before they shrunk. Otherwise you wouldn't be that shaken." Hattorie was silent again and when he spoke up again his voice had changed from its usual brash tone to something much softer. "Who?"

With another shaky breath Conan mentally prepared himself and answered: "Takagi-keiji, they got Takagi-keiji."

"They shrunk one of Megure-keibu's men?", exclaimed Hattorie loudly.

"Hattorie", hissed Conan back in warning.

"Relax Kudo, I'm alone. But seriously, they shrunk that Takagi?"

"Yes unfortunately. For the last two days Takagi Wataru, Sergeant of Division One of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, has been in my class in elementary school."

"Well damn", murmured Hattorie softly. "How's he holding up?"

"Could be better, could be worse", answered Conan. "You remember Sato-keiji?"

"The female officer where you called me ecstatically when her and that Takagi fellow became an official item? Yeah I do." Conan laughed nervously, but didn't think he could be blamed. Just about everyone who'd hoped those two would end up together had celebrated when they'd finally made it official.

"Yeah, that Sato-keiji. Well, as it happened, Takagi, Taiki now, ended up living with her. Which essentially puts him a similar position to myself and Ran."

"Ouch", stated Hattorie and Conan could imagine him grimace.

Conan nodded to himself and added softly: "Although those two are worse off than myself and Ran."

"How so?", asked Hattorie confused.

"The only other two men Sato-keiji truly loved with all her heart, her father and her former partner Matsuda Jinpei-san both died in the course of duty Hattorie. Before she even considered becoming Takagi's girlfriend she had him promise that he'd never leave her like them. And now…" _Now it almost happened and she has no idea where he is._ Conan left the last part unsaid, but knew Hattorie would understand.

A somewhat morbid silence began to stretch between the two detectives when suddenly the door behind Conan banged open. The child-in-appearance jumped about a foot in the air with a yelp, only to scramble out of Sonoko's way.

"Channel 5! Channel 5!", shouted the Suzuki heiress over Hattorie's frantic shouts of: "Kudo what happened? What's going on?"

Keeping the mouthpiece of his phone near Conan turned to Ran and asked: "Ran-neechan what's going on?"

The girl smiled at him warmly and explained: "Sonoko just got a message from Suzuki-san's assistant. Apparently Kid just sent in his answer."

"Shhhh!", hissed Sonoko from the TV.

Conan rolled his eyes, but focused on the TV as well. "-has just answered Suzuki Jirokichi-san's provocation."

The picture switched to a familiar white card and Conan red out loud: "When the soul of the sea tolls, then it is time for me to appear from the depths of my secrets to take the blue of the water with me. We'll disappear without a trace into the white River of Eternity. Greetings, Magician in the Moonlight. And he put the **take the blue of the water** in bold."

„Can you repeat that?", asked Hattorie over the scratching of a pen on paper. Conan repeated the message once more.

"Why all the water-metaphors?", asked Ran then.

"I have an idea about that", muttered Conan while Sonoko explained: "Oh that's simple Ran! Uncle Jirokichi did secure the gem near a river. It's obviously that."

_Yeah, right_, thought Conan dryly while Hattorie, who'd overheard her too, snorted into the phone.

"We're in agreement that we can completely ignore those metaphors, right?", asked the teen.

"Yeah", answered Conan. The fact that this one certain part of the message was bolt hinted to its importance. "So if we take away those away…"

"Then it would roughly be: When the soul tolls, then it's time for me to appear…something with his secrets… to steal the gem. He and the gem will disappear afterwards into…the white eternity?"

"Well he's got his glider and…maybe he means the Milky Way?", offered Conan. "It's only a guess right now but…"

"It's pretty possible and-" A shout from Hattorie's end cut the teen off and he cursed silently. "Sorry Kudo, gotta go. Keep me posted, will ya'?"

"Sure", answered Conan and the connection was cut off. Conan put his phone away and refocused his attention on the riddle he'd scribbled onto the newspaper. _From the depths of my secrets, my secrets…his secrets…Could that mean?!_

* * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this?", asked Taiki nervously while Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko dragged him through the crowd towards the police. Taiki still wasn't sure what had happened. The kids had just shown up at Miwako's place and had asked if he could come with them. Miwako had agreed and the next second Taiki found himself dragged through the streets.

What was it lately with other people making his decisions for him? He'd have been content sitting on Miwako's couch and watching Conan and Kid go at it from there.

"Yes we should", answered Ayumi brightly now. "Ai-chan is the only one who almost never comes with us, you aren't like that Taiki-kun, right?" She looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes and Taiki bit back deadpan expression that wanted to pull over his features. _Oh you have no idea Ayumi-chan, you have no idea._

Soon enough he group of four reached the front of the crowd and Taiki spotted a familiar head near Inspector Nakamori and Suzuki Jirokichi together with Ran and Suzuki Sonoko. Conan was focused on a sheet of paper in his hand.

"Oi! Conan-kun", shouted Genta suddenly and ran up to the shrunken teenager.

Conan's head shot up and his eyes widened, before a slight sheen of exasperation shone in his eyes. Taiki wouldn't be surprised if he facepalmed mentally. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanna fight Kid to, what do you think", answered Mitsuhiko.

"Yeah, you can't always be in the spotlight Conan", agreed Genta.

Taiki blinked at that one, then focused on Conan fully and stated: "For the record, I was all for staying at home and watching what was going to happen on Sato-neechan's TV."

"Thought so", chuckled Conan dryly, then sighed: "Well, now that you're all here we might as well tell the adults about it. Nakamori-keiji might not be all that happy about it, but Suzuki-san should be glad." The kids cheered and skipped over to the aforementioned adults.

Taiki moved to walk next to Conan and stated: "I heard about the letter. Did you figure anything out already?" Conan grinned at that.

"The majority of it, but I'm still stumped over the _When the soul of the sea tolls_. Or rather when the soul tolls. We can pretty much ignore the water-metaphors. But still…"

_When the soul tolls_, thought Taiki with a frown. That sounded somewhat familiar. Tolls most likely indicated a certain full hour. _Wait a second, tolling bells are often a rather loud noise, what if we have to…a loud noise…could also be a shout, right? But that would mean that… _

"Eleven", whispered Taiki.

"Nani?", asked Conan from next to him. Taiki looked up, to see the Detective Boys, Ran and the Suzuki girl looking at him.

"Ah", stuttered the boy and glanced at Conan. He nodded and with a deep breath Taiki explained: "A tolling bell is often a loud noise right? There…I read something lately about the meaning of numbers and one of the meaning of the number eleven, the only one matching, was _Call of the Soul_. So…what if Kid meant eleven o'clock?"

He leaned back a little when he saw everyone stare at him, but form the corner of his eye saw Conan return his attention to the riddle in his hand. Then he checked the time and grinned. "Taiki-kun, you're a genius!"

* * *

**That was it then. Now I'm completely cuaght up to my original Version (that means the original will be deleted now). If you guys have any ideas for cases or Kid heists it'd be well appreciated. I'd gladly even give you credit for it. Because seriousely, I sat more than half an hour at creating that freaking Riddle.**


	5. Chapter 4

**I've got great news for all my loyal readers, not only concerning this FanFiction, but all of them. I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL! Yeah,, you heard right. It was one gruelling and hellish month, but it's all done and over with now until I go to University in October. So I should be able to get somewhere with all my stories...that is unless I hit a Writers Block. **

**Anyways...**

* * *

**As always the warning beforehand: **

**I**** suck at Japanese honourifics, ignore mistakes.**

**I**** suck even more at creating cases, please be Patient.**

**Of all my stories, this one is the most challengin.**

* * *

**Thank you for your Patience.**

**Detective Conan/Case Close doesn't belong to me.**

**Please don't only Read, but also Review!**

* * *

Last time:

_"A tolling bell is often a loud noise right? There…I read something lately about the meaning of numbers and one of the meaning of the number eleven, the only one matching, was Call of the Soul. So…what if Kid meant eleven o'clock?"_

_ He leaned back a little when he saw everyone stare at him, but form the corner of his eye saw Conan return his attention to the riddle in his hand. Then he checked the time and grinned. _

_"Taiki-kun, you're a genius!"_

* * *

"So, why again are we up here now?", asked Taiki while he glanced down from the roof they were on. It was a building on the other side of the river where the heist would, if Taiki's deduction was correct, take place in less than 15 minutes.

"There's too many of Nakamori-keibu's men near the heist spot to stop Kid there, they'd just get in the way", explained Conan while he checked the roof with his night-vision glasses. "Also, in the riddle Kid wrote that he and the sapphire would 'disappear into the white eternity'. Since the only thing that's been proven to be eternal at this point is space, I figured he meant the Milky Way. And this", he gestured around the roof, "Is the best spot for kid to use his glider in the immediate vicinity. Plus, we're literally right underneath the Milky Way."

Taiki looked around again and had to admit, the shrunken teen was right.

Within 250 meters of the heist-location, this building was the tallest and looking up he saw a mass of stars right over his head. "But why not just try and stop him before he even gets to the gem?", asked the darker skinned boy now.

Conan glanced at him, surprisingly looking somewhat embarrassed, and admitted: "I hate to give him that, but I've never managed to stop him in time before he could complete his first act. I only ever manage to get him during his getaway. This time I thought I might as well try and catch him here in the first place. Saves both of us time and me my breath. Other than that, I don't think I'll recognize him today."

"Why not, has he gotten better at acting?"

Somehow that thought horrified Taiki greatly.

"No", answered Conan and shook his head. "If I'm right, and I like to think I am, then he's gonna show up without any disguise at all."

Taiki's eyes widened when he realised what Conan's words implied and he gasped: "You're telling me he's going to show up as the person behind the Kid-persona?"

Conan grinned at him, a gleam of excitement entering his eyes. "Exactly. It's somewhat risky, but definitely fits his personality. And when he shows up as who he really is, Nakamori-keibu can pull at his face as much as he wants. He won't be revealed..."

"…because there is no mask to pull off", finished Taiki. Then he saw Conan frown and asked: "There's something else, isn't there?"

Conan looked at him somewhat incredulously, before he asked back: "Has being shrunk increased your perceptiveness or only your confidence?"

Taiki blinked at the random question suddenly shot his way. What was that supposed to mean? He never… Well actually, now that he thought back at it, whenever he had an idea or a question, he usually used to only dare to mention it half of the time and now fidning out that he'd always been on the right track with his suspicions about Conan had definitely given him a confidence boost. Plus he had always had trouble reading Conan before.

Though that one might just have become easier now that he knew who was behind that persona.

"Forget it", chuckled the boy now. Taiki glanced back at him and Conan continued: "To answer your actual question, there are a lot of similarities between Kid and myself. Physical similarities especially."

"Physical?", pushed Taiki confused.

Conan nodded and answered: "Yeah, Kid never needed a mask to act out being Shinichi Kudo. I would know considering how often I was in the same room with him at the time that he faked being me."

Taiki's mind flew back to the incident with Suzuki-san's airship, when Conan and Kudo, or rather Kid, had suddenly jumped out of the helicopter he and Miwako had been on. It had given him one heck of a scare, plus it had Miwako and him debate whether or not Kudo was actually Kid.

He was about to open his mouth and ask another question, when it happened. The bell of the nearby bell tower started to toll. Taiki tensed and both boys turned to look over the river and towards the heist location.

Ding…dong…ding…dong…ding…dong…ding…dong _-…9…10…and-_

The next second mayhem broke out on at the heist-location.

Taiki watched with bated breath how multi-coloured smoke burst from the ground, hiding the entire happening from view. Muffled shouts echoed over the river while more and more clouds of smoke burst up. Blue, green, yellow, red and of course Kaito Kid's usual pink. "That…is a lot of smoke", stated the shrunken officer after about a minute of smoke-bombs going off. Seriously how could anyone breathe in there?

"I'm not surprised", answered Conan dryly. "He's gonna need some time to get over here for his grand finale." He rolled his eyes. "He's always so-"

"-impressed with my little Meitantei-kun for figuring out my riddles so wonderfully."

Both boy's eyes widened and they spun around, to come face to face with a white-clad male. Taiki couldn't help but narrow his eyes soon though. He had never been this near to Kaito Kid before, at least not while being conscious, but now that he was, he saw something that confused him. Kid had been known as a master-thief for more than 2 decades now, but this guy…if he wasn't changing his voice again, and Taiki doubted he was, then they were facing a teenager.

How had no one ever realised this before?

How many teenagers that could pull those tricks off were there in Japan?

He doubted it were many.

* * *

Kaito had a great heist.

He'd been able to secure a spot rather close to the sapphire and Nakamori-keibu's face when his smoke-bombs had started going off was amazing. The inspector had his men pull at the face of everyone that came to the heist, not realising Kaito hadn't come in disguise this time. He'd almost started to crack up when an officer had pulled at his face.

Once the smoke-bombs had started to go off, the magician had stealthily pushed a few people into the secured space around the sapphire, prompting massive movement from everyone. The teen had slipped by unnoticed, the smoke providing the perfect cover, and had simply snatched the sapphire from almost literally underneath Suzuki's nose.

Then it had come to acting quickly.

Spinning around, Kaito had run to the river and leaped into the small engine-powered boat he'd secured nearby. Now he was easily and quickly crossing the still waters, enjoying the sounds of more smoke-bombs going off behind him. Yes, it had been a good heist. One thing disappointed him though.

His little Meitantei hadn't shown up tonight, although he'd seen the Mouri girl and the other kids in the crowd. Maybe he was sick? Kaito would have to stop by at the Detective Agency before going home then. He couldn't have his Meitantei miss out on all the fun, now could he?

Shaking his head, Kaito focused on his price and held the sapphire up into the moonlight. _Damn, that isn't the right one either. Ah well, at least I had a fun evening. _The sound of the boat hitting ground suddenly reached his ears and Kaito quickly returned his attention to the here and now. The magician jumped out of the swiftly enough, skilfully avoiding landing in the muddy water, and started to make his way towards his take-off building.

While rushing up the stairs, Kaito quickly changed into his Kid costume, monocle and all, and silently slid through the door onto the roof.

Then he froze.

"-a lot of smoke", stated an unfamiliar, young and male voice.

What the heck was this? Why was there some kid on this roof?

"I'm not surprised", came a sudden answer from a much more familiar voice. A Cheshire Cat-ish grin stretched over Kaito's face when he recognized his Meitantei's voice, and heard the almost bored drawl in it. "He's gonna need some time to get over here for his grand finale." Kaito could almost imagine the boy rolling his eyes, an exasperated expression on his face. Quickly the magician moved from the door to stand behind his favourite detective, not really sparing more than a bored glance at the other kid on the roof. "He's always so-"

"-impressed with my little Meitantei-kun for figuring out my riddles so wonderfully", cut Kaito in, his grin growing a little.

Both boys spun around, their eyes widening a little, most likely at the fact that Kaito had snuck up on them so easily. Meitantei's eyes narrowed again soon enough, the sharp blue gaze flittering over Kaito's form and their surroundings, checking for hidden tricks and clues. The other kid caught his attention now though.

Despite the fact that he seemed a lot less focused on the matter at hand than Meitantei, there was something about this boy that struck Kaito as odd. His silver-blue eyes, much like Meitantei's, were way too sharp and focused for a seven year old kid. Had his favourite shrunken detective found a new friend? While this kid certainly didn't scan him for the same reason Meitantei did, he was scrutinizing the magician as well and seemed to find something that stumped him. Kaito pondered calling him out on that, but decided against it, opting to rather return his attention to his favourite opponent.

Some might call Meitantei a pain for all the trouble he always caused Kaito during his heists, but in all honesty, the Magician under the Moonlight loved to pit himself against the shrunken teen. It was Hakuba, the other detective that was even more out to get him than Meitantei was, who was the pain in the ass. While he did pull quite a few tricks on Meitantei, those tricks were harmless and more often than not, even Meitantei could laugh about it after the fact. Hakuba got the worse end of the deal and the meaner tricks, frankly just because Kaito despised the blonde. And that even more out of personal reasons than Kaito Kid's work.

Meitantei, though he often easily saw through Kaito's tricks, didn't always call them out. For goodness sake, sometimes the guy actually stayed quiet about it for quite a while, letting his friends enjoy the mystery and wonder stage magicians like Kaito loved to offer. Hakuba on the other hand always tore down Kaito's works. And there was no difference between whether or not it was Kaito Kid or Kaito the blonde was annoying with it. _And I'm stopping that thought right there_, thought Kaito forcefully. _Keep it in mind Kaito, Kid and your private life have to stay seperate until the heist is over! Well...mostly._

Fact was, Kaito liked his Meitantei and despised Hakuba.

"So, how are we going to do this?", asked Meitantei now.

"Well my dear Meitantei-kun", answered Kaito with a shrug and pushed his hands into his pockets. "I'm certainly not just going to give you the gem just like that." He smirked at the shrunken teen. "You're gonna have to work for it."

Meitantei narrowed his eyes even more at that and asked: "What are you talking about?"

"Since you managed to trick me out of it", Kaito raised his hand to the mechanism that controlled his glider, "How about a chase, now I mean?"

He was about to activate the mechanism, when a brick suddenly almost smashed into his hand. With a yelp the magician staggered to the side and looked to where he believed the brick to have come from. The other kid already held a second one at the ready, eyes narrowed and focused now, not too different from Meitantei. "Or", began the white-clad thief then, "We could start by you introducing your new friend here."

He wasn't eager to have another of those bricks flying at him. If it hit him wrong it could damage the glider-mechanism and strand him on this building.

"This is Taiki-kun, he's new in my class", stated the shrunken teen dryly, gesturing sloppily to the other boy. The kid nodded, Taiki Kaito reminded himself, then thought; _I'm gonna need a nickname for this one too. Somehow I get the feeling whenever I get to play with Meitantei-kun again, he's going to be there more often than not._

Kaito liked surprises, he was a magician after all, but new players in his game always unsettled him.

_What if he's with that organisation that killed Oyaji? I'd trust them to recruit a kid and set it on me or Pandora! On the other hand…Meitantei-kun is one paranoid fellow, isn't he? I doubt he'd trust this kid if he had that kind of secret. Heck, for all I know he could be like Meitantei-kun. Actually that sounds a lot more probable than my first idea._

"That's not exactly much for me to go on Meitantei-kun. Tell me, does he share our _little_ secret?", asked Kaito now. The emphasis on little seemed to be hint enough for both kids to realise what he meant and they tensed. Well, now Kaito at least had his answer. "I see…very well…Taiki-kun was it? Looks like Meitantei-kun respects you a whole lot, so I guess we'll be seeing more of each other soon enough."

He flourished out a somewhat over exaggerated bow, then threw a few smoke bombs. The roof soon was fogged over with pink smoke.

* * *

Taiki started coughing when the pink smoke enveloped them and clenched his eyes shut. He only dared reopen then once he felt a fresh breeze of air. By then the smoke had started to disperse and Kid didn't stand where he had anymore.

_Kuso_, thought the boy. _Has he gotten away?_

He scanned the roof, then looked up into the sky. There was Kid, flying away from the house and the heist-location along the milky-way. Sirens reached Taiki's ears and he looked over to the heist spot, to find dozens of police cars pull out onto the streets and race after the thief. An annoyed grunt from beside him caught Taiki's attention and he turned his head, to find Conan fight with something in his pocket.

"Everything alright Conan-kun?", asked the shrunken officer.

Conan glanced up, then returned his attention to his pocket and growled: "I'm just fine. It was nice enough of Kid to leave the sapphire with us before he made his getaway, but he could've put it somewhere else", he struggled to get his hand out of his pocket, "I can't get it or my hand out."

Taiki didn't know why, but something about those words, the situation and the picture Conan made was incredibly funny. The tanned boy burst out laughing. "What are you laughing for?", grunted the shrunken detective immediately. Taiki shook his head and, once he'd calmed down, moved to help Conan get his hand out of his pocket.

It took them a few minutes and a lot of pulling, but they managed to get both the hand and the sapphire out.

"That's what I never fully understood", stated Taiki while the two made their way down the steps of the house. "What is Kid trying to accomplish with stealing things and then just giving them back?"

"I can't say that for sure myself actually but…sometimes I caught him holding whichever jewel he stole up into the moonlight before he muttered that it wasn't the right one…so I guess he's locking for a certain jewel", answered Conan with a shrug while he held open the door. The two boys exited the building quickly and made their way back to the heist location.

The moment they reached it, Ran was upon them already, demanding where they went. Taiki remained silent at that, not having expected the teen's reaction despite having it seen quite often while being an officer. Somehow being on the receiving end of Ran's worried and angry attention was really unsettling.

Conan let out a nervous laugh and stammered out some excuse of having believed to have seen Kid behind some corner. He explained how he'd dragged Taiki along and how, after a while of looking, they had found the sapphire lying on the ground.

At those words he presented the jewel to Suzuki-san, who ruffled first Conan's and then Taiki's hair while laughing. Taiki tensed under the old man's hand, his mind flying back to memories he really wished he could erase.

With as much force as he could he pushed those memories away and took deep calming breaths.

"You okay?"

The shrunken officer cast a glance at Conan, catching the worried look the bespectacled boy was giving him and nodded his head weakly. "Yeah…I'm just fine…"_…at least until the nightmares come tonight…_


	6. Chapter 5

**As always the warning beforehand: **

**I**** suck at Japanese honourifics, ignore mistakes.**

**I**** suck even more at creating cases, please be Patient.**

**Of all my stories, this one is the most challengin.**

* * *

**Thank you for your Patience.**

**Detective Conan/Case Close doesn't belong to me.**

**Please don't only Read, but also Review!**

* * *

_Last time: _

_"You okay?" _

_The shrunken officer cast a glance at Conan, catching the worried look the bespectacled boy was giving him and nodded his head weakly. _

_"Yeah…I'm just fine…"…at least until the nightmares come tonight…_

* * *

There was a betting pool in the homicide department of Division One of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Scratch that, there were a good dozen different ones.

Of those, four concerned the mystery of Edogawa Conan.

A small part of Taiki winced at the reminder that, although he now did know just who Edogawa Conan was, he wouldn't be seeing any of the money he himself had put into the pool called "Who is Conan really?" anytime soon. Not only was he definitely not in the physical condition to claim it, he'd be risking countless of lives by announcing that his guess of "Conan-kun is an adult in a child's body, I'm sure of it" was actually correct.

Now though, his main concern was connected to a different bet all together. "Is Edogawa Conan actually a Shinigami?"

At this point Taiki was more than ready to withdraw his original claim and double his money on a "yes".

Eight days.

It had only been eight days since he'd become the Detective Boy's classmate and he, due to an extensive amount of time spent in Conan's presence, had been involved with solving five murders, and one case of pickpocketing that happened at school.

Five murders in eight days!

And only 3 of those involved Mori-san.

The amount of times he'd met Conan at crime-scenes while he was still a police officer had been strange already, but now that he was around the shrunken teenager so much it had become outright ridiculous.

The latest murder had happened just two days ago and Taiki hadn't even been near Conan at the time. Miwako had been called to the scene though and, since she didn't want to leave him alone, Taiki went along with her. He hadn't even been surprised anymore when he found Ran and Sonoko in front of the flat and Conan within.

-_can't actually believe how many people Conan-kun keeps using his stun-dart on. Though it does explain quite a few things I'd been wondering about concerning High-School Detective Suzuki Sonoko. Figures he'd use her too, although the first few times had apparently been an accident. Still, the case hit. I kind of do understand that coffee-shop girl about the ticket. There's little I wouldn't do for Miwako, but to first steal something and then try to hide a murder, however accidental is cowardly and-_

"Taiki-kun! Conan-kun and Ai-chan are here!"

Taiki quickly closed the pen, locked up the diary Miwako had given him – she thought it would be helpful to him to write down his thoughts and feelings. And it was, only most certainly not in the way she expected it to be.

"Be right there", Taiki shouted back and jumped off his bed. He grabbed his Detective Boys badge off his desk, slipped on his jacket and ran out of the room.

Miwako was standing near the front door, a bag next to her and Conan and Haibara stood just outside said door. Megure-keibu and Miwako were set to leave for Kyoto today, so the shrunken officer would be spending the night at the Mori Detective Agency. Before that though, the group had agreed to meet up at the park for a few hours before heading to Professor Agasa's place for cake.

"Do you have everything, Taiki-kun?"

Taiki looked up from where he was putting his shoes on and nodded. "Hai, Sato-neesan."

The woman smiled warmly and responded: "Then I hope you'll have fun with your friends. And don't make Ran-chan and Mori-san too much trouble tonight you two, alright?" Now she was looking at Conan and Taiki both.

Both boys nodded with a unison 'Hai' before Taiki found himself engulfed in a strangling hug. Furiously fighting his blush the shrunken officer hugged his unknowing girlfriend back tightly.

"Have a good time Taiki-kun."

"Arigatou Sato-neesan."

The two parted and Taiki quickly turned around to hide his still present blush. He picked up his bag quickly and tried to not quite flee the flat. Conan and Haibara fell in step with him quickly, but no one said a word until the elevator doors had closed behind them. Only then Taiki let out a deep sigh and leaned his head against the cool metal of the elevator door.

He barely even twitched when a hand landed on his shoulder, but did lift his head at Conan's question.

"How are you holding up?"

Taiki locked eyes with the shrunken teenager before he answered: "I'm holding, but that's about it." His gaze lowered to the floor and he softly continued: "You were right…she was crying again last night. That trip to Kyoto, originally I was supposed to accompany Megure-keibu there, not Miwako."

"That would do it", Conan agreed and squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

* * *

"-Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to take off. We would like to remind you to please turn off you all electronic devices including mobile phones, laptops and game consoles."

After sending a short glare at her superior Sato Miwako smiled at the flight attendant apologetically and whispered: "Right away, sorry about this."

The other woman smiled back and nodded before moving on.

Upon returning her attention to Megure-keibu, she found that the man was still fiddling with his phone, a frown on his features.

_Geez, it's always the same_.

"Well, I finished checking the map around the Kyoto Police HQ where we'll be picking up that suspect…but how do I turn this thing off now", he grumbled.

Miwako let out an exhausted sigh before she answered: "Just hold down the power button until it turns off, keibu."

"Oh. Like this?"

Glancing over Miwako sighed again when she found her superior pressing the main menu button. She reached over and snatched the phone away. While ignoring the annoyed grunt beside her she pressed the power button and stated: "And all this because you bought a smart phone, trying to look cool, really keibu."

An indignant huff sounded out before Megure asked: "Well, did you turn yours off yet, Sato-kun?"

Miwako handed the now off phone back to him and answered: "Eh, before we even boarded the plane." She sighed. "Too bad Taiki-kun was busy and couldn't pick up when I called him before the boarding." She glanced out the window. _I wonder how he's doing._

* * *

Once again Taiki found his resolve to change his bet concerning Conan being a Shinigami strengthened. Although he still wasn't completely sure how they had managed to end up in this situation.

Only three hours after leaving Miwako's place, Taiki was in the park, playing football with the others. Although getting decimated by Conan might have been a more apt description.

Despite it having been Conan and Ayumi versus the rest of them, and the shrunken teen only using his left foot to play, the bigger Team had still been left in the dust. It didn't help that, for all that Taiki had some athletic talents, football wasn't among them. After an argument had almost broken out between Conan, Mitsuhiko and Genta, Ayumi had caught everyone's attention when she called out for Taii, a calico cat the group knew from Conan's neighbourhood.

After hanging around the kids for a bit, the cat had run off, prompting Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko to give chase. That of course meant that Conan, Haibara and Taiki would follow. The shrunken officer had almost forgotten his bag in all the haste. In the end they had ended up following Taii into a refrigerated delivery truck carrying, among all kinds of goods, a dead body in a box.

They actually hadn't found the body for a while, but hadn't been able to leave the truck at the next stop since Haibara's sweater had gotten caught on something and had, quite literally, disappeared into nothingness. Thankfully Taiki had had his bag on him and although none of the clothes really fit her, the shrunken scientist was at least wearing clothes now.

And here they were now, sitting in the dark with only Conan's watch as a light, while the detective tried to get Mitsuhiko's phone working again so they could call someone. Taiki would have offered his own, but it didn't have any power left as either.

"…got it!", Conan hissed suddenly and jumped up. And indeed, the display of Mitsuhiko's phone was glowing.

"Yatta! Now we can call the police!", Ayumi cheered.

"But who?", Genta asked.

Mitsuhiko brought his fingers to his chin. "Well, usually I guess we'd call Takagi-keiji." Right now Taiki was immensely glad for the darkness of the truck, because those words did make him wince. They also made him realise something else.

So long as Miwako didn't happen to be at a crime-scene now, then the Detective Boys, but even Conan alone, would have a lot more trouble solving cases. Most of the time the information needed to solve the case had come from Taiki himself after all. Some might have always called him naïve or easy to manipulate, but that was not so.

He'd always been very aware of what he was doing when revealing things to the kids. Because children or not, they were good at what they did and deserved a chance to try their best. The dressing downs he kept getting from Megure-keibu every now and then were worth it, in his opinion. Miwako may not think as strongly off most of the children, but at the very least Conan would still be able to get information out of her. Chiba would probably be helpful by now as well, but Shiratori-san and Megure-keibu could present a problem.

"How about Sato-keiji then", Ayumi offered suddenly, effectively bringing Taiki's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Won't work", he cut in quickly. "Sato-neesan is on a plane right now, together with Megure-keibu. Her phone won't be on."

"Ohhhh, is that why you're spending the night at Conan-kun's place?", Mistuhiko asked.

"Oi", Conan cut in. "Is this the right moment?" Taiki let out a sheepish laugh and rubbed the back of his neck while Mitsuhiko ducked his head. "Anyway, our best bet right now would be Shiratori-keibu."

"Ha?", Genta asked. "Why not Chiba-keiji? He likes us more, right?"

"Eh", Conan agreed. "But Shiratori-keibu has a higher position and does listen to us too." The bespectacled boy gave a grin that sent a shudder down Taiki's spine. "Especially since we helped him and Kobayashi-sensei to become an item in the first place." And then he was already typing in the number.

Taiki was truly curious about whether or not Shiratori-san would listen to the shrunken teen. The older man had certainly mellowed out somewhat ever since meeting Kobayashi-sense and since then he'd actually actively tried to help Takagi against all the other men in Division One, but he still was a lot more critical than Miwako or himself used to be.

"Ah, Shiratori-keibu?"

On Conan's words all the kids started paying close attention again. Due to his standing right next to the boy Taiki could somewhat hear Shiratori-san's end of the conversation as well.

"Ah, yes, Gomen", the boy answered. "But we have a really big, _dead_ problem."

The other end of the line became suspiciously quiet for a few seconds before Shiratori-san spoke again.

There was a questioning tone in his voice and Conan answered: "We're inside a refrigerated delivery truck and there's a dead body in a box…no, we followed a cat we know in…yes I know, gomen, we were trying to spend time in the park because we were waiting for a cake Hakase Agasa ordered. Anyway, this truck has made some stops already and the drivers made themselves memorable by having accidents and dropping parcels so if you could-kuso!" The boy cut himself off with a curse.

"Battery down?", Taiki asked.

"Completely this time, there's no way to revive it again."

"But…there has to be something we can do", Ayumi cried.

Taiki frowned before he offered: "Let's take a look at everything we've got on us. Maybe we'll find something we can use."

"It's the best chance we have right now", Conan agreed and started digging in his pockets.

Taiki decided to forgo his bag, nothing but clothes and hygiene-supplies were in there, and dug in his pockets as well. The others did the same. In the end they had a handkerchief, pocket tissues, a wrapped candy and a cotton bud from Ayumi, a plaster, a chocolate bar and an anti-itch cream from Genta, a notebook with a ballpoint pen, a handkerchief, a wallet and a taxi receipt from Mitsuhiko and a rubber band, another few plasters and a packet of tissues from Taiki himself.

Also, Conan's head now sported a bump from Haibara hitting him. Well, the way the boy had pointed out that Haibara had nothing but her underwear on her warranted it.

"But…can we really do something with all this stuff?", Mitsuhiko asked now.

"What if we write a help-note and drop it out?", Ayumi offered.

Taiki was quick to shoot her down though. "Not an option, unfortunately. Too much could go wrong. The paper could get found, but be misunderstood or it could even get stuck and then be found by those deliverymen. And that wouldn't end well for us."

"Oh. I guess you're right." Great, now Ayumi being dejected made him feel guilty.

"Don't be so down Ayumi-chan", Taiki continued quickly. "It was a good start, but these guys are smart enough to effectively mess with the rigor mortis, so we have to…" He hesitated, then a comparison came to mind. "We have to think more along the lines of tricking someone like Kaito Kid, so we can make sure they really don't figure us out, right?"

The girl brightened again at his words and nodded her head strongly.

A soft exhale, not enough for a gasp, but certainly something, from Conan prompted Taiki to look at the shrunken teen. Conan was staring at Taii wide-eyed, the calico cat obliviously cleaning himself.

"Well", prompted Haibara. "Did you think of something?"

"Eh", the boy answered.

"Really?"

"Yay, Conan-kun."

"Already, sugoi!"

With a sheepish laugh, and while scratching Taii's chin gently, Conan continued: "Well, Taiki-kun gave me the idea."

"I-I did?", Taiki asked back, thrown.

Conan nodded and explained: "Your comment about trying to trick Kid. What if we take a page out of his book and use an animal to help us." He glanced down at Taii. "Here's what we're gonna do…"

* * *

"…and that's the last letter", Taiki breathed and shook out the hand he was holding the cotton bud with.

"Sugoi Taiki-kun", Mitsuhiko exclaimed. "Conan-kun was right. Your hands are even steadier than his."

A sheepish laugh came from the brunette and he answered: "I wouldn't go that far. After all, I'm just helping out here since Conan-kun's busy preparing Taii."

"Speaking off, he's ready", Conan's voice cut in now.

* * *

After the taxi-receipt had been fixed to Taii's collar and the cat had been set free, much to the shock of the deliverymen, it was time for the waiting game. After many more stops Taiki finally turned to Conan and whispered: "Taii wouldn't have needed that much preparation. As you said, this is his territory. Why did you have me work on the receipt. And don't use the steadier hands excuse, we both know you're actually better."

"Don't sell yourself short", came the sharp reply. Blinking Taiki locked eyes with Conan and the other continued: "You did that as an adult often enough as well. Selling yourself short, I mean. There's no reason too. As for this, I wanted you to show the kids some of what you can do. Sooner or later your 'backstory' is going to be revealed to them. You've got to show them some of what you can do, otherwise it just won't fit." Then he grinned. "As for the steadier hands thing, I've seen you hold a gun as Takagi-keiji often enough. I also know how I hold a gun, even being my real age. Your hands actually are steadier then mine."

An answer was on the tip off Taiki's tongue when the truck jolted to a stop once again. Immediately the kids ducked behind various boxes.

"That's the last parcel for the seventh district of Beika", came a voice. "Make sure you get them to remember your name and face!"

"Y-Yeah", was the hesitant answer.

"After that we better go back to the second district to drop off that parcel that needs to be delivered at a specified time, and after that, I guess it's time to take the body back to his own house in the first district."

And the doors closed.

Almost immediately Ayumi's voice rang out.

"I'm freezing."

"It has been quite a while since we let Taii out", Haibara agreed.

"I'm hungry, I wanna go home", Genta whined.

Taiki couldn't help but stare while his friends dissolved into an argument. Even Conan and Haibara were actively participating.

How would this help them?

Then he noticed something else. Mitsuhiko wasn't in the group. Concerned Taiki scanned the room and found the tall boy crouched behind a big parcel. He was barely moving.

"Mitsuhiko-kun?", Taiki asked and placed a hand on the other's shoulder. Fear hit him immediately. It felt like Mitsuhiko was a block of ice. The cold was starting to get to him. Why him first Taiki wouldn't know. Maybe he was just more susceptible to the cold. It was still bad news though. "Mitsuhiko!" Taiki called the other's name again, louder and more insistent this time. He also shook his shoulder. Finally he reacted.

Tired eyes landed on Taiki and the other boy whispered: "I'm okay…I-I seem to have managed to get over this cold somewhat. I've stopped shivering too. That's good, right." His eyelids started dropping and Taiki quickly grabbed his second shoulder and shook him back to awareness.

"No, that's not good", protested the shrunken officer worriedly, memories of his own dealings with long exposure to the cold and frostbite resurfacing. Some of them were quite recent, others decades old, but all held the same fear and pain. "That's actually very bad. It means you're experiencing hypothermia and-"

He stopped when the other's body fell lax.

Taiki's heart was pounding in his throat. What now? _My bag! I'm sure there are still some extra clothes I could give him. Where is it?!_ He jerked his head around quickly. There it was. Directly next to the still arguing kids. Had they really not realised…?

Scoffing Taiki shouted out: "OI!" The four fell silent and turned to look at him wide-eyed. "If you're all done acting like bratty three year olds, we've got a serious situation here that's just been made worse by our FRIEND passing out from the cold. Hypothermia is not a joke!" Steely grey-blue eyes looked on a certain horrified blue, silently chastisimg the other for losing his cool like he had. "So get it together, for Mitsuhiko-kun's sake. Now someone get me my bag!"

Ayumi, looking scared out of her mind, was the first to react and quickly brought the bag over to him. All the while Taiki kept rubbing Mitsuhiko's arms, alternating to his hands every now and again to get some warmth back into his limbs. "Anything that's clothes that's left in there, pull it out", ordered the boy now.

By now Conan had moved next to shell-shocked Ayumi. The horror in his expression had been replaced by steady focus.

"Ayumi-chan", the command in Conan's voice prompted a tear to escape her eyes, but she also ripped her attention away from their unconscious friend to said boy. "Grab Mitsuhiko's hand and rub them between your own. We need to make sure he doesn't get frostbite there."

"Hai", the girl managed to squeak out and leaned over the tall boy once Taiki had carefully positioned him flat on the ground.

Between him and Conan they had managed to pull Taiki's extra sweater over Mitsuhiko's form. An extra pair of socks was transformed into makeshift mittens and Taiki's pyjama-pants, as the top was already being worn by Haibara, became an elaborate, makeshift hat. Then the two boys had Genta sit down in a hidden corner and carefully manoeuvred Mitsuhiko next to him. Ayumi and Haibara immediately crowded around them in order to hopefully spend some warmth.

"Is-is Mitsuhiko-kun gonna die?", Ayumi squeaked.

For the first time since Taiki had fallen into his old focus of efficiency, a trick he'd developed surprisingly early into his carier with the police and didn't actually often have a need for, something managed to get through the wall that usually kept his emotions out of the way. Horror rushed through him at the thought of what could happen, but before either he or Conan could say anything Haibara spoke up.

"We won't let it get that far, ne minna?"

"Eh", the three boys agreed instinctively.

It was quiet for a while, before Conan whispered: "You know, I was right." Taiki blinked at the boy, letting his confusion be seen openly. "About you being able to do a lot more than you give yourself credit for. If I had been the one to notice the state Mitsuhiko-kun was in first, I'd have panicked for quite a while before even attempting to try anything to help. You reacted immediately, had the best course of action in a second and managed to tell all of us off at the same time."

"You'd have thought of something without me though", Taiki argued bag.

Conan shrugged his shoulders then. "Perhaps, but it would've taken me a lot longer. Mitsuhiko has a much better chance of recovering thanks to you."

"But-"

"He's waking up!"

Genta's exclamation cut off Taiki's new argument, but he didn't really care. Both he and Conan spun to the huddling group to find that Mitsuhiko was indeed starting to shift around. Not too long after his eyes fluttered open and he gazed around confused. Relieve rushed through Taiki and he took a few steps back when the others started fussing over the recovering boy. Hypothermia was nothing fun and Taiki was immensely glad Mitsuhiko had been spared anything worse than what had already happened.

_Although I won't be surprised when it turns out he has a cold tomorrow. Though…I'm actually curious to see which of us won't show some signs of today. Now, back to why I'm wandering around here._

Truly, ever since Mitsuhiko woke up Taiki had been wandering around between the parcels, occasionally stopping to read the delivery-notes. He didn't know why he was doing it, but something was nagging him. Somehow, somewhere n here there should be a clue for their escape. But where…

Taiki blinked, took a few steps back and looked down at a white parcel again. A grin appeared on his face and he called: "Minna! Come look at this!" Slowly the others came over and Taiki pointed to the parcel. "I think I found our way out."

Conan leaned over the parcel and grinned as well. "That's the cake Hakase ordered."

"Great, can we eat it?", Genta asked. He got multiple unimpressed looks from the others.

"My plan was more…" Conan let the sentence hang in the air while he started scribbling on the delivery note with Mitsuhiko's pen. "…this!" Taiki leaned over the parcel again and stated: "If what you told me about Okiya-san is true, then he should have no problem figuring this out." The shrunken teen hadn't changed much yet, only the recipient, but it should work, especially if one considered how the other was working the cotton off of one end of Ayumi's cotton bud.

"But how will that suffice?", Haibara asked once both boys had retreated from the parcel. "You wrote a message he'll notice, but how will he know that we're in danger?"

"Think about it", Conan answered. "The handwriting and the colour of the ink are different from the original one. Subaru-san will notice right away." The girl continued glaring, reminding Taiki that, for all that Conan would trust the world to the man Haibara did not trust him at all. "And he can easily work out that the only way for me to add this to the parcel was from inside the delivery van. And if that was necessary…"

"…then it is obvious that we're in trouble and he'll think of a way to help us out", Taiki finished, then added on: "Also, I saw Conan-kun add info on our situation as well."

"Ehhh!", Genta exclaimed. "Won't they see that."

"No, they won't", Taiki answered confidently. "Because Conan-kun wrote it with the cotton bud Ayumi-chan gave him, well, with the end he removed the cotton from."

Everyone looked at Conan, who held said item out, then he picked up Taiki's explanation: "Delivery notes usually have various layers: the label, the sender's copy of it and more. They're made out of a special paper. Anything you write on the top-sheet is automatically copied on all the sheets underneath. So if I remove the 'proof of delivery sheet' that the postman would take out after having it signed by the recipient, write on the remaining two sheets with a cotton bud, then put the proof of delivery sheet back in, no one will notice that I wrote something on the bottom-most slip, the 'recipient's copy'."

"And this way only Okiya-san will notice", Taiki finished.

Then the van stopped.

Immediately they all hid again.

The men were quick to remove the parcel, having a small argument whether the cake should go to the Kudo or Agasa house, before settling with what was on the parcel. The doors closed again but no one dared to move. After a while the doors opened once more.

"Hey, why are you opening the back again?"

"The recipient of the last parcel asked me to take on this small package here."

"Well, it is pretty small so I guess it's fine."

A small thud and the door closed once more.

Immediately Conana sprung from his hiding spot and raced to where the package had landed.

"Conan-kun wait", Taiki hissed. The men hadn't even yet moved back around to the front of the truck again. The could still hear them!

But the others weren't listening, delighted over the fact that Okiya had put a phone in the package for them to use. A small thudding noise came from outside and Taiki's eyes widened. Adrenalin started pumping through him and old instincts he didn't think he still had made him duck into the small space between two big parcels. Not one second later the door sprung open once more.

"Now, now, you children, no calling the police", one of the men said. Everyone froze in shock. "I did see that some parcels had moved around compared to earlier, so I decided to check." The man laughed and Taiki let out a soft breath of relieve. Him saying five mean that he himself hadn't been discovered yet. He just hoped he would actually be able to make something of that.

* * *

_Baka, baka, baka!_ Conan berated himself. _I should've checked more carefully if they were really close. I let my excitement get the best of me and look where we are now. My watch is too cold for the dart to be an option and taking out both with my belt and shoes…if I were alone there'd be a chance, but since it's all of us, no way…"what do I find, five more sneaking kittens"…Wait! Five kittens? There's six of us._

Subtly peeking around Conan had to fight to keep his eyes from widening when he realised that Taiki was nowhere in sight. _Where did he go?_

"…take the phone off them, we just lock them in here and let them freeze to death."

_Kuso! Think Kudo, think, there's gotta be something I can do or we're all done for!_

"No one will know what happened. No bodies, no police and we're scot-free."

"And you are absolutely certain of this?" Another voice joined in, sounding much more cultured than the two deliverymen, and Conan's eyes went wide.

_How? Is that really-_

"Shiratori-keibu!", Ayumi cried in relief.

And indeed, there the police inspector stood, two of his subordinates with, both of those already having drawn their guns. "But how-", the man that appeared to be the head asked.

"The police has many resources", Inspector Shiratori answered. "Also, these children managed to place a call once already. Unfortunately the phone they were using gave up on them. Luckily they had managed to provide us with quite some information already. Upon asking Hakase Agasa, your latest recipient, about his order it was easy enough to get through to your company. This all did take a while and once we had all the information we needed we decided it would be safer for the kids if we just waited for you here. Now, please open these doors and allow the children to leave your van and company safely. You will already receive a severe sentence for murder, we would not want to make it worse, would we?"

_Nicely put, Shiratori-keibu_, Conan thought.

The men growled, but finally they slowly started to open the door. What Conan hadn't expected was for the taller one to suddenly lunge forward and grab onto Mitsuhiko. Said boy, still weakened from his mild hypothermia, was pulled not his arms easily enough. A small blade appeared at his neck the next second.

"We aren't going anywhere, now no step closer or the boy is done for!", the man snarled.

"Think about what you are doing", Shiratori shouted back. "Are you really willing to take these risks? Now that we know of you, you will get caught anyway. Quit making it worse."

"Shut up", the man roared back and lifted his blade a little. "And get back."

Conan clenched his fists while he watched how the inspector and his two officers moved away from the van slowly. There was nothing any of them could do right now. The man stood in a bad angle to Conan, so his footballs wouldn't help much either.

"Good, now", the man turned to look at his colleague. "You close the door."

"Ah, Hai!"

_When they close that door we're truly done for_, Conan thought. _We have to do something, now. But what? What can we do to save ourselves. What_?

Then it happened.

In a matter of two seconds the doors were wide open, Mitsuhiko was free and both men were on the ground.

Conan knew he was gaping, but he didn't really mind, because what he'd just seen, that's something he'd have never seen coming.

_~ The thicker man was closing the van's doors when a dark silhouette shot past Conan at high speed. It hit the closing doors with one shoulder, the bang and force startling the man enough to fall over backwards and force the doors wide open. In mid-jump the figure, now in the light clearly recognizable as Taiki, twisted around and latched onto the arm the other man was holding the blade with. Said arm was turn away from Mitsuhiko and Taiki kicked the man's knee while simultaneously biting his wrist. Mitsuhiko was dropped to the ground, allowing him to scramble away, just before the man himself hit the ground as well, Taiki on his back. ~_

Right now both man and boy were struggling with each other. Finally though the man managed to grab the back of Taiki's jacket and wrenched the boy off himself, leaving him dangling in the air. The man stared up at the boy hatefully, but was brought up short when he met the boy's eyes. Conan understood why.

While working with Takagi-keiji on cases he'd gotten to see the man in a variety of moods. From dead serious or angry to nervous or bashful and all the way to his compassionate kindness.

But never before had Conan seen that look in the other's eyes.

His grey-blue eyes had lost their lively gleam, making their grey colouring a lot more prominent. The glare the boy was fixing the man with was cold, calculating and almost detached.

As it was, the hesitation that seeing Taiki's glare caused the man was his undoing. The boy reached up with one arm, grasping at the arm the man was holding him with, and pulled himself forward, thrusting his other arm out while he was at it. Each child, even Conan and Haibara cried, out in disgust when the boys fingers dug deep into the man's right eye.

With an agonized cry the man flung his arm out, sending Taiki flying through the air until he hit the ground, hard.

Conan was still busy gaping at the shrunken police sergeant, otherwise he'd have probably had a football out by now. Luckily the police did react in time and when Conan finally had his wits together again the deliverymen were being led to a patrol car while Shiratori was checking Taiki over carefully.

The boy looked decidedly uncomfortable, having his fellow officer close like that, but Conan wouldn't put it past Sato-keiji to have threatened the entirety of Division One to keep an eye on her charge while she was gone.

Soon enough it was all over and after everything had cleared up and the group had shared a somewhat destroyed but still most delicious cake with the Professor and Subaru, Conan and Taiki made their way back to the Mori Detective Agency together. Conan kept glancing at Taiki though.

Right now the other appeared deep in thought, eyes clouded but at least back to their gentle grey-blue colour.

Conan didn't want to admit it, but Taiki's actions back at the van had frightened him.

They had frightened him a lot.

* * *

Despite being in deep thought Taiki could tell that Conan kept staring at him, had done so throughout the whole afternoon, actually. He knew why, but didn't bring it up. He was far from ready to talk about his with anyone, not even someone he trusted as much as he did the shrunken High School Detective. This was his own secret, a secret much older than the one Taiki already shared with Conan right now.

If possible, it was a secret he planned to take with him to his grave.


End file.
